Debut Book Out Now
“To every lawyer who picks up this book: You do hard things every day. You ought to have the life you not only want, but deserve.”
-John R. Kormanik
It is time to break the law, reach your full potential, and learn the ways to optimize your life so that you can have the life you want, not a life of regrets.
As a lawyer who practiced for over two decades in both the public and private sectors, I have read study after study that depression, anxiety, alcoholism, isolation, and burnout is staggeringly prevalent amongst lawyers. The statistics don’t lie.
One underlying cause of these issues is the recognition by individual attorneys that they are not living up to their full potential while living a suboptimal existence in one or more areas of their lives. Lawyers have forgotten who they are as people because they so deeply identify with their role as attorney. In reality, practicing law is not who anyone is, but simply a profession, the thing they practice so they can achieve their goals and vision for their life.
Practicing law is a means to an end, not the end itself.
You’re afraid you’ll get to age fifty, or sixty, or seventy, or even eighty, and say to yourself
“I don’t know what happened. I started practicing law and never looked up in time to decide what I wanted.”
This is your chance. This is your book. Look up, get the tools you need to realize your potential and optimize your life.
Who is John R. Kormanik?
I wrote you this book to share what I’ve learned about living a fulfilled, joyful, empowered life while practicing the law, while living up to one’s potential in all aspects of life; personally and professionally
When I decided to go to law school, I was making a big leap. I was thirty-five, married, owned a home (with a substantial mortgage - a product, if I’m being honest, of trying to keep up with the Joneses), was the father of a two-year-old, owned a dog… you get the picture. But I really wanted it.
When I shared my desire to change careers with my wife, Michelle, she simply said, “Don’t mess it up, John".”
I did not mess it up. Instead, I bested my goal of finishing in the top 10 percent of my law school class and graduated magna cum laude (fifth in my class).
The law was much more than a “job” for me; it was, indeed, a calling in that season of my life. Now I am called to serve those who serve others, my family in the bar.
A full life requires personal evolution and my personal growth continued.
I did not leave the active practice of law because I was stressed out, depressed, or done with being an attorney. I loved the law and being a lawyer; I still do. I loved owning my law firm and being entrepreneurial; I still do. In other words, I didn’t leave because I was burnt out.